In many high production welding environments, weld wire is delivered to the point of use in a container, such as a drum. The drum contains a coil of wire long enough to support high production welding operations for an extended period of time.
A de-coiling cone may be used to help feed wire out of the drum. A typical de-coiling cone includes three concentric rings—an inner ring through which the wire is fed, an outer ring adjacent the walls of the drum, and an intermediate ring disposed between the inner and outer rings. The rings are arranged at different heights and connected by legs or spokes that extend radially outward and downwardly from the inner ring to the outer ring to define a cone-like profile. The de-coiling cone rests on top of a cardboard ring, which rests on the coil of welding wire inside the drum. The welding wire is consumed as the welding feed system pulls the wire out of the drum through the inner ring of the de-coiling cone. The de-coiling cone and cardboard ring ride on top of the wire, dropping lower into the drum as the wire is consumed.
Customers expect to continuously feed the wire into their weld system until the drum is empty. However, tangles occasionally occur inside the drums. In some applications, particularly those with larger diameter wire, or with stiffer wire alloys, the wire tends to tangle due to twist induced in the wire by the customer feeding system. One of the most common types of tangles observed in the field occurs when the weld wire moves up above the de-coiling cone, between the de-coiling cone and the inner liner of the drum, while the end user is welding. When that happens, the wire eventually gets caught on the de-coiling cone, causing feeding to stop, and operator intervention is required.